Tuesday, March 6, 2018

March 6 On This Day in Australian History

1784 - Poor old John Hamilton Irving thought his life had come to an end as he was convicted of larceny (and him a surgeon, no less!) and sentenced to 7 years over the briny blue sea but later became Australia's very first emancipist.

1788 - Captain Phillip sent Lt Philip Gidley King off on a 3 hour cruise to settle Norfolk Island as a resort to begin the flax and timber industry which failed so badly that Gidley King began his career as a pole dancer on one of those Norfolk Island pines much to the disgust of the locals.

1812 - Methodism was birthed in the Fair Land of Oz on this day when 3 men attended a meeting; a schoolteacher, a soldier and a convict (walked into a bar....).

1818 - Charles Throsby, James Meehan, Hamilton Hume et al. set out from Camden to find an overland route to Jervis Bay.

1819 - William Gore was imprisoned for debt and suspended as Provost-Marshal with John Thomas Campbell appointed in his place.

1826 - John Burke was Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Cogan at Mulgoa.

1826 - William Corbett was Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Great Western Road.

1837 - Hobart had its first legit theatre the Theatre Royal , as opposed to the puppet shows in the lean-to out the back of Aunty Maggie's wash house, in Campbell St.

1840 - Alexander Maconochie became superintendent at Norfolk Island.

1879 - A rabbit plague, previously confined to Victoria, spread into New South Wales. Rabbits were first released 20 years earlier near Geelong on the property of god-damn-you-Thomas Austin.

1883 - A public meeting, where spleens were vented with great gusto, took place in the Protestant Hall in Sydney to rant protest at the Irish National League Reps in Oz.

1891 - Members of a Royal Commission, who were in that neck of the woods to eyeball the environs for a railway, were caught in the deluge at Hawker which flooded Birdsville, Innaminka and Clayton.

1894 - The railway line from Beulah to Hopetoun (Vic) opened. The railway construction was started as a private line by E.H.Lascelles to service his growing (planned) town of Hopetoun but due to the economic depression of that decade it was taken over and completed by the Government-owned Victoria Railways.

1899 - The Wanganui Herald announced that, instead of remaining as 5 pettifogging provinces Australia had finally pulled their digit out and decided to Federate!
Yet the pettifogging remains to this day...

1912 - A general strike in Brisbane, which had lasted five weeks, ended today.

1919 - The sad, miserable remains of an Aussie soldier's water bottle was found on this day at Lone Pine by the Australian Historical Mission.

1919 - The War Service Homes Act of 1918 became operative.

1922 - The Yanco - Griffith Railway Line (NSW) was opened.

1931 - Holden Motor Bodies Ltd merged with General Motors Aust. Ltd.

1944 - The advanced party of No. 19 Replenishing Centre moved from sub depot No. 4 Clarence to its new location at Talmoi and by 13 March 1944 the unit had occupied the new site.

1963 - Moe went from doing the Ugg boot shuffle to becoming a City.

1963 - The first Lifeline Centre commenced operation from its premises in Sydney at 5pm.

1965 - Labor won power in South Australian for the first time in 32 years. Labour leader Frank Walsh became Premier, replacing Liberal leader Sir Thomas Playford, Australia's longest-serving premier, who had held office for 26 years, 4 months.

1966 - Holt announced that the Australian commitment in South Vietnam would be Increased to a 4350-man task force, and would include conscripts.
The 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) included two infantry battalions, a Special Air Service squadron, combat and support logistic units and eight RAAF Iroquois helicopters (9 SQN).
The Task Force would be supported by 1 Australian Logistic Support Group (1 ALSG) to be established at Vung Tau. For the first time, national servicemen would be sent to South Vietnam.

1970 - Marine scientists warned that the Great Barrier Reef was being severely damaged by a massive explosion in the population of the coral-eating Crown Of Thorns starfish....but don't worry the dredging spoil will take care of those slippery lil suckers.

1975 - A UFO was eyeballed at 4.30am at Lake Sorrel in Tassie with another sighted later that night on the same day in Sydney.

1986 - Prime Minister Bob Hawke announced his Government would not proceed with legislation for national land rights.

1987 - At a not defined date in March the rural newspaper The Land refused to accept an advertisement for Country Network, a gay support group saying that it was “not in keeping with The Land General Conditions”.
Yeah, cos those home-Oh!-sex-you-alls are not allowed beyond the city limits into the country.

1993 - International Women's Day saw "Women's Rights Are On The Line." with a march from the
Parliament Steps, followed by a Festival at Lincoln Institute, and a dance that evening at the North Melbourne Town Hall.
3CR celebrated Labour Day Weekend and International Women's Day with a 3-day live broadcast from the Brunswick Pool.

1994 - A petition signed by 90 Federal MPs in an effort to re-schedule the ABC telecast of the SGLMG parade was an epic fail, and the telecast went ahead capturing 45% of the Sydney TV audience.

2001 - The latest issue of the GLBTQ weekly, G, was shrouded in controversy as the editor and staff ceased working and there was a rumoured break between the publisher and the investor.

2003 - The Kinchela Boys Home State Dinner was held at NSW Parliament House.

2004 - The theme for Mardi Gras that year was Metamorphosis.
Monica Hingston, the lesbian cousin of Catholic Archbishop George Pell and partner Peg Moran were the Chiefs of Parade.
130 floats are cheered on by 250,000 spectators in persistent rain at that year’s Mardi Gras parade. 17,000 attended the post parade party.

2004 - Prime Minister John Howard in a talk-back radio interview spoke out against adoption rights for same sex couples.
Pfft.

2006 - PM John Howard in New Delhi said Australia will consider selling uranium to India if it is convinced about New Delhi's commitment to follow global nuclear safeguards for its civilian atomic reactors.

2009 - Melbourne was shaken by a 4.7 earthquake on this day in 2009.
With a little notice we could have had the vodka in the glass.

2013 - The Council of the Australian War Memorial agreed to include all the names of ADF personnel killed in non-warlike service since 1947 (including peacekeeping operations) in the Roll of Honour. These people had previously only been included in the Remembrance Book.

2016 - The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was held on this date with the theme of Momentum.

2017 - Cyclone Blanche crossed the northern coast of Western Australia as a category two storm.